Salt water sadness

Anybody up for a backstory?

Ákos clutched his baby sister in his arms as the ship sank, looking around in vain for his parents. The couple was nowhere in sight, and the last place the boy had seen them was the brig. The two children were cowering on the deck of the crippled ship, and Ákos tried to comfort his sister as panicked crew members raced past.

The water began to reach the top of the boat. Ákos remembered what his father had told him about sinking ships. If it went under completely, anyone near it would get sucked under as well. Ákos sent one last furtive glance at the stairs, but no familiar faces appeared.

Luckily, the boy knew how to swim, so he strapped a life vest onto his sister and jumped into the water. It was horribly cold, but he shook off the chill and kept the baby above the water best he could. The waves were tall and fierce; the boy struggled to stay afloat as he was buffeted by the storm raging around them.

Just as his strength was waning, a hand gripped his shirt collar and they were hoisted onto a lifeboat. He spluttered, hastily checking to make sure his sister was okay. She squalled, but the little one was just fine. Someone was shaking him, yelling something, but it took him a second to register what he was saying.

“Hey… Hey kid, you okay? Kid? Where are your parents? What happened to the ship, did you see? Hey kid, can you hear me?” Ákos blinked salt water out of his eyes and blearily shook his head.

“The ship… the ship s-sank. My parents were on board but I couldn’t… find them. We hit… a rock or something. I had to get out before it sank.” The boy answered, pausing for gasping breaths when he had to. He spotted a blanket on the edge of the boat and wrapped his sister in it, pulling her into his lap and looking at the other occupants.

There was the cook and a few ship hands in the little life boat, but no officials who would notice that the kids hadn’t been paying customers on the ship.  Ákos knew that was good, no one would realize they were stowaways.

The storm crashed around them and the boat pitched violently back and forth. The baby whimpered in Ákos’s arms and he held her tight, feeling exhausted. The younger fell asleep first, but the boy soon followed, rocking back and forth in the midst of a storm on the Adriatic Sea.

They woke as orphans the next day. The boat had washed up in Albania, and the ship had been searched for while the children still slept. Minus the handful of people in the life boat, there were no survivors. Nobody was certain what had cost the ship to wreck, but a rumor began to pass that the captain had drunkenly steered them into rocks.

With no family to turn to, and no families nearby willing to take on two hungry mouths people began to talk of splitting the children up. When he heard this, Ákos picked up his baby sister and set out while the investigators’ backs were turned. He figured that he could take care of her better than they could anyway.  With a heavy heart, he mourned his parents as he walked. He decided that they should head back for Hungary, where his parents were born. Perhaps he could find work there and get paid enough to take care of them both.

He carried his sister on his back and kept walking, never looking back at the little town they’d left.

“Don’t worry,” He told the baby that was now his to care for, “We’ll be okay. I’ll protect you forever, Ildiko.” 

~~Kels

I need to do the thank you thing.

Hey. I'm kind of a big dork when I try to write to specific people but I'm gonna try it anyway. Thank you people for reading this blog. It really means a bunch to us that you read our stuff :D It means a huge deal to see that even people from other countries are reading it too :D Please, feel free to comment on anything! We always would love to hear what you have to say, or what you'd like us to write about! We aren't too picky, within reason, and we're eager to please! So please, if you would, leave us some guidelines that would help us grow! ~love always, Emma.

A word from the other big dork! Thank you to all of our viewers and we hope you enjoy the stories!! ^_^
~Kels

A married couple stands in the lobby of a building. The woman wrings her hands nervously. Her husband's hand lays comfortingly upon her shoulder. Suddenly, from down the hallway, a man emerges. A young boy is clutching his hand. Tears spring into the woman's eyes. Her husband is unsure of the nature of these tears; joy? Excitement? Horror? Sorrow? 

The boy spots the couple and starts running. His eyes light up happily. "Mama!" His voice is young, gentle, just as it had always been.  The woman stoops down and wraps him in a hug. He buries his face in her shoulder, giggling. She runs a hand through the boy's dark hair. It's soft. It's sweet. It's not exactly the same. But it's close enough, she tells herself. 

The boy's eyes look up to the husband. "Daddy!" He reaches his arms up towards his father. The man reaches down and takes the boy into his arms. "I missed you a lot!" The boy says to both of his parents. 

"We missed you too, Beck," His father replied, now crying himself. 

"Yes, honey." His mother replied. "Every day while you were gone."

A Baffling Beginning

Another short in the Prince and Jester story. New Characters!

“Ildiko, Ákos, come here a moment!” Queen Mathilde’s voice rang out across the throne room to the far wall, where two jesters sat chatting. The two snapped to attention, cart-wheeling over to the Queen and sweeping into identical bows upon arrival. “Oh, enough of your antics,” The Queen laughed, “I want to talk to you two about something.” The smaller figure, Ildiko, grinned cheekily.

“We are supposed to amuse, your majesty, I’m not sure we can be serious!” She chirped. Her brother whacked her upside the head.

“Be good, sis, mind the Queen’s orders.” He growled, but his eyes sparkled with laughter.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Really though Ákos, you’re worse than I am!” Ildiko replied, rubbing her head and pouting. The Queen cleared her throat and the Fools returned their attention to her, the taller looking sheepish.

“As I was saying,” Queen Mathilde continued, “I need one of you to go on a mission for me. You two can decide between yourselves which one shall go.” The Jesters exchanged looks, mirth gone. The brother spoke first.

“You… You’re splitting us up, your Majesty…?” Ildiko slipped her hand into her brother’s. They only had each other since their parents died, and they had always hoped they could remain together.  The Queen frowned.

“I’m afraid so. I want one of you to remain here, while the other goes to comfort my friend. He just lost his father, and he could use a Jester to cheer him up. I promised you two that I’d never force you to separate from each other, but I was rather hoping you could do this for me. Besides, whichever one of you that goes is only going to be a kingdom away. He might even send you right back, I am not certain.” The siblings looked back and forth between each other and the Queen, and then nodded.

“We shall do as you command, My Queen” The elder replied, bowing smartly. Beside him, his sister curtsied.

“I shall give you two days to decide which of you is going. Choose well. You are dismissed for today.” The two bowed again and left without another word, traveling back to the servant’s quarters. Ildiko followed Ákos into his room and sat on his bed while he paced the floor.

“What’ll we do, Sis?” Ákos sighed, slipping his mask off and setting it onto a desk, looking distraught. “I don’t want us to be apart.” The man had worry lines on his face, and Ildiko wondered how long they’d been there. Surely her brother didn’t get upset that easily. He was the less serious of the two! But her brother was still pacing, brow wrinkled and frowning.

“Ákos?” His sister finally broke in after a few minutes of silence.

“Hm?”

“I’ll go.” Ákos whipped around and gaped at her.

“You’ll… what?!”  Ildiko stood.

“I’ll go on the mission. You should stay here.”

“No way, not happening, Sis. I should go, I’m the oldest. You must stay here where you’re assuredly safe.” He looked at her like she was crazy –more than usual, that is – and wrung his hands as he spoke. “I can’t just let you go off to another country!”

“You love her.” Ildiko said, without a bit of uncertainty in her voice.  Her brother turned an interesting shade of red.

“Wh-What are you talking about? I d-do not. You can prove n-nothing.” Ildiko clicked her tongue and shook her head.

“I don’t need to. You need to stay here where she is. I’ll almost eighteen; I’ll be fine, Ákos. You’re her favorite anyway.”  The smaller jester smiled sweetly and new that she’d won. Her brother was a pushover. Plus, he had a weak spot for his sister.

“I shouldn’t give in…” He sighed, tugging on his auburn hair, but his tone suggested he was about to give.

“It will all be alright Bro. Besides, it’s not like I’m going across the world, just a few days travel away.”

“Fine…” He said, sitting down on the bed with a groan. “There isn’t any winning against you. You always get your way.” Ildiko plopped down beside him.

“Yep!” She chirped, and kissed him on the cheek before hopping up and leaving the room, giving a little curtsy at the door.

“Ugh…” Ákos said after she had gone. “I hope she knows what she’s getting into.”

~Kels

A Prince in a Foul Mood

This is the beginning of a story, and it all starts with a prince.

The Prince was grumpy, to be blunt. He’d been bombarded by all sorts of marriage proposals all evening, and between his father’s funeral and late night political talks, he had hardly slept through the night in a week.  Hardly anyone would leave him alone, and Prince Felix wondered if he’d have to kill someone to get some alone time. He eyed his official bodyguards with a sinister look, wondering which would be easier to take out. The smaller of the two shuddered without really knowing why.

“S-Sir?” A voice cut through his dark musings.
 He frowned sharply at the servant who approached him, bearing a platter with a roll of parchment on it.

“Yes?” He drawled, adjusting his crown. It didn’t quite fit him as well as it had fit his father.

“U-Um, the Duke of Hungary has a present for you, Y-Your Majesty.  He told me to give you this before I announce him in.” Prince Felix snatched the letter off of the tray and made shooing motions at the servant, who obediently scurried off.

The scroll was sealed with the Queen of Hungary’s stamp pressed into red wax, which the Prince cracked in half with the ease of one who got many such documents. He unrolled the parchment and held it up in front of him, squinting to read the Queen’s neat handwriting.  

Dearest Felix,

How are you faring, dear one? I know it must be hard with your father’s sudden passing, and if I were not so tied up with the legal works on this side, I’d come and visit you in person. However, since I cannot, I have sent in my stead a new friend for you. You became horribly depressed when your mother passed, and although my reports tell me you are faring fine, I suspect that you are in fact in deep turmoil over your father’s sudden death. Therefore, I am sending a member of my court, who you may have seen before, to join you for as long as you wish to host her. She and her brother have worked for me for many years, and she is by far the better of the two at doing her job.

I hope my letter has found you well, or can at least provide you with a bit of companionship in these dark days. All of my love,

Queen Mathilde the third

Felix set the letter down and sighed, feeling a bit better than he had before. Although he wasn’t anywhere near cheerful, his good friend had at least brought a brief smile to his face and lit his eyes with a tiny bit of light again. He folded the letter neatly and slid it into his hidden pocket, then turned and whistled sharply towards the door the servant had fled from.

An official sounding trumpet tune played, and a loud voice proclaimed: “The Duke of Hungary!” The large double doors at the head of the entrance hall opened and a fat man came waddling through them, arms out wide and a wide grin plastered onto his red face.

“Felix, my boy! How great to see you! It’s been forever since you visited us in Hungary, you should leave the castle more often!”

“Is that a diplomatic offer or an order, sir?” The Prince snapped coldly. The smile of the jovial man slipped a bit and he visibly seemed to deflate.

“N-Not at all your majesty. I m-mean, it’s an offer!”The man fumbled for words under the icy look Felix was giving him. “The Queen sends her best wishes, and um, also a gift.” The Prince gave him a look that seemed to ask him to either leave or continue, the Duke wasn’t quite sure which. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but apparently thought better of it and just snapped his fingers.

The doors yet again opened, but instead of a box or a cage dragged in by servants, a figure rolled in swiftly on a large round ball, bouncing around the vast throne room. Felix felt his eyes go wide as he watched the acrobat move around the various vases and tables that were placed randomly around the room. The figure did a few quick laps around the room before coming to a skidding stop directly before the Prince, jumping up on the ball and bowing dramatically.

Felix gazed at the person before him, taking in the odd dress of this character. It was a girl, for one thing, a young girl perhaps a year or two younger than him. She was thin, bordering on scrawny, and had piercing green-blue eyes. Her face was painted white, with a red teardrop under her right eye and a blue star under the left. She wore a jester’s outfit of blue and red, mismatched and bright, with bells on the ends of her cap. She was perched with incredible balance on top of the ball, which tilted and rolled a bit every few seconds.

Suddenly, with a loud bang, the ball popped and the girl fell. Felix actually moved forward as if to catch her, but she did a back hand spring and landed on her hands, feet in the air. She gazed up at him with a simple care-freeness that left him stunned and said: “Ildiko the jester, at your service, ‘Majesty.”  She flipped back onto her feet and curtsied neatly, grinning.

Felix smiled automatically in response and stood, bowing back to this girl, who seemed to possess a contagiously bright mood. The Prince looked over her shoulder at the Duke who was watching with a wary look of hope on his face.

“Tell the Queen her gift of companionship is well received, and that I shall visit as soon as it is feasible for us both.” He said with a regal formality that prompted the Duke to bow.  “Oh,” The Duke looked up. “and tell Mattie ‘thank you’ for me, will you?” The Duke smiled and nodded, pleased to hear the Prince call his Queen by her less formal name, as he had practically raised the both of them. He left with a contented look on his face, very glad that he had a good report for the Queen.

The Prince sat back down once the man left, and turned his attention back to the jester.

“So,” He began, “Tell me about yourself.” 

-Kels